Play is children’s therapy - they work through worries, curiosities, fears, and triumphs through their play. Having limited language and less conceptual experience, nature has provided young mammals with this way to learn what the grown-ups know. At school, we teach children that games are for having fun, and if someone in the game is not having fun, the game should change. This gives the children opportunities to practice reading faces and listening to each other’s words. The adult’s work is to be aware of the dynamics of play, and point out choices and options when the children need guidance. We take advantage of opportunities to voice our own peaceful values by commenting on situations that arise. Through play your child is trying to find out who he or she is in the world. A child learns about personal physical abilities and limits, about what is interesting and/or tolerated by individual friends or the group, and about how to negotiate a difference of opinion with friends. Chil

EC’s  solar system (astronomy) art project involves placing the planets in order while also coloring the planets according to their actual colors.  The project combined tracing the inset of the planets, coloring the planets with oil pastels, and finally painting over them in black watercolor.  This also allows the children to observe that watercolors do not paint over oil pastels (oil and water don't mix). Art and science are a natural complement to each other. In the last few weeks, ME has been working with clay.  They have experimented with rolling and cutting slabs, revisited pinch and coil methods, and have created a little menagerie of wee beasties and containers.  Clay fish by Ava ME also visited the Nashville Children’s Theater to see the production of “You're a Good Man Charlie Brown” . UE continued their study of religious art focusing on Islam.  They learned about the significance of geometric patterns in Islamic art and created their own unique pa